Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Pull Down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Insert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Composite Design Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Composite Grid Design Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Composite Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Preliminary Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Composite Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Zone Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Transition Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Imposed Thickness Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Connection Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Solid From Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Zones Bridge Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
New Solid From Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Ply Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Importing a Laminate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Stack Up File From Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Stack Up File From Core Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Plies Creation From Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Plies Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Manual Ply Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Creating a Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Ply Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Importing a Ply Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Creating a Limit Contour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Check Contours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Creating a Limit Contour in an Input File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Creating a 3D Multi Splice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Ply Exploder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Dart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Creating Symmetric Plies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Solid From Plies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Symmetry of Plies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Merge Plies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Create Mirrored Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Synchronizing a Mirrored Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Exporting Ply Data as IGES or DXF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
XML Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Problem 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Problem 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Problem 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Problem 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Problem 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Mechanical Design - Composites Design - Composites Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Mechanical Design - Composites Design - Stacking Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Introduction
CATIA Version 5 Composites
Upon completion of this course, the student should have a full understanding of the
following topics:
Composites
This course will cover all of the options found in the Composites Design and Composite
Grid Design workbenches. The first portion of the book will focus on the design options
available within the Composite Design workbench. The second portion of the book will
delve into the manufacturing side of composite parts and how they will be created. Finally,
the grid method will be discussed in the Composite Grid Design workbench. In order to
have access to the Composites workbenches, you will need to turn on the CPE and CPM
licenses under Tools, Options, General, Licensing.
Ply Creation
This section will discuss creating and modifying plies both automatically and manually.
The plies created here will represent the actual plies that will be necessary in order to build
the composite part.
Importing a Laminate
When a zone is defined, the laminate can be specified by manually entering the number of
plies in each direction. Rather than entering each laminate definition manually, the
definitions may be imported from an excel spreadsheet.
Open the Importing a Laminate model. The zones have already been defined on this
model. It should appear as shown.
Select Cancel. The second zone laminate definition is not specified either.
The material, directions and plies can all be modified for each zone within the excel
spreadsheet. Keep in mind, the composite parameters defined in the part, must match the
spreadsheet. If you have directions of 0, 45, -45 and 90 in the spreadsheet, you must have
those same directions in the composite parameters.
Select the Import Laminate icon. The Import Laminate Definition window appears.
Browse to the models directory and select the Import Laminate Definition document
and select Open.
Select OK.
Double select Zone.1 in the specification tree and switch to the Laminate tab again.
Notice the laminate definition is defined.
Select OK.
The other zone is also defined. If you decided to make a change to the laminate definition at
this point, you could either do it manually or you could change the spreadsheet and then
import the laminate again.
Select the Stack Up from Zones icon. The Stack-up file from zones window appears.
Zones to be taken... Specifies the zones that will be referenced in the stack up
Open stack-up file... Specifies that the newly generated file will automatically be
opened upon creation
Select the Browse icon and go to a location in your area. Name the file Stack Up From
Zones and select Open. This specifies where the file will be stored.
The spreadsheet shows all of the plies that would be created based off of the defined zones
at this point.
Open the Stack Up File From Core Sampling document. The plies have already been
generated for this file.
Select the Stack Up File from Core Sampling icon. The Stacking from core
sampling information window appears.
Core samples file Specifies where the core samples file will be stored
Core samples prefix Defines a prefix for the core samples that will be created in
the model
Select the Browse icon for the Core samples file and go to a location in your area.
Name the file Core Sample and select Open. This specifies where the file will be stored.
Select the Browse icon for the Stack up file and go to a location in your area. Name the
file Stack Up and select Open. This specifies where the file will be stored.
Key in CS for the Core samples prefix and select OK. The files are generated along with
core samples in the model. The locations of the core samples are shown in the display.
Go to your area and open both the Core Sample file and the Stack Up file. The Core
Sample file should appear as shown.
Open the Plies Creation document. All of the preliminary design has already been done
on this model.
Expand the Composites PD branch and hide the Connection generator branch in the
tree. This will make it easier to select the wireframe elements later on in this exercise.
Select the Plies Creation from Zones icon. The Plies Creation window appears.
Insert plies after Defines where the plies will be inserted into the specification
tree
Use Stack-Up File Specifies the plies will be created based on a predefined stack
up file
Create plies without... Specifies no staggering will be used in the creation of the
plies
Create plies in new group Specifies a the plies will automatically be created in a new
group
Create plies from Zones... Specifies that taper will be used in the creation of the plies
within the transition zones
Create full plies and... Specifies that the plies will be created with the corresponding
edges to be staggered. The ETBS can be used to define limit
contours for modifying the plies later on.
Staggering Data When using the Create full plies and ETBS option,
you may choose to generate a staggering data file
containing all of the edges to be staggered
Turn on the Create plies in new group option and be sure the Create plies from Zones
with Taper option is active and select OK. The plies are generated. Two new branches
appear in the specification tree.
The Stacking branch contains the new group and all of the plies. The geometrical set
contains datum curves that represent the outside edges of the plies.
Expand the Stacking branch. It should appear as shown. Notice the plies are contained
within a plies group. The order of the plies under the Stacking branch determines the order
that they will stacked on the definition surface.
Select Ply.1 in the specification tree. Notice the ply highlights in the display.
Each ply is represented in the specification tree and its outline will highlight in the display if
you select it from the tree. By default, the plies are created from smallest to largest. This is
typically not how you will want them to be ordered. Later, you will actually explode the
plies so you can see them as well as reorder them.
Select the Plies Creation from Slicing icon. The Plies from Slicing window appears.
Target plies group Specifies the plies group the new plies should be stored within
Create new plies group Allows you to create a new plies group to store the new plies
Select Slicing Curves Group of Zones Group.1 from the specification tree.
Turn on the Create new plies group option and select OK. The plies are generated.
Select the Ply Exploder icon. The Ply Exploder window appears.
Set the options as shown above and select OK. The plies appear as shown.
The plies will need to be rearranged both by size and by orientation to display the final
laminate.
Select the Interactive Ply Table icon. The Interactive Ply Table window appears.
Column Allows you to specify which columns are displayed in the window.
Selection Mode Allows you specify whether the elements in the window will be
selected by Cut Piece, Ply, Sequence or Ply Group
Ply Properties Allows you to modify the Material, Direction, Rosette and Draping
Direction of the selected ply
Rename Allows you to modify the Name, Start Index and Step of the selected
ply
Turn on the options as shown above and select Close. The columns in the Interactive Ply
Table window should update.
Be sure the Selection Mode is set to Sequence and select Sequence.5 from the table. It
should highlight in the window as well as the display.
Select the Move Selection button. The Move Selection window appears.
Select Sequence.4 and Sequence.6 from the table. You will have to use the Ctrl key.
Key in 24 for the Line # in the Move Selection window. Be sure the After option is
selected and select the Move button. The two sequences are moved into the last position
in the stackup.
Select Sequence.1 in the table. Change the Direction to be 90. You will do this in the
Ply(ies) Properties area of the window.
Select the 12th component from the table. This should be Sequence.14 as shown.
Select the In a new Sequence at Line # option and select the Create button. A new
sequence and ply are created in the table.
Set the Material for the new ply to be Fiberite Graphite Unitape and the Direction to be
90. It should appear as shown.
With the new sequence selected, key in MID SEQ for the Name field.
Select the Ply option under the Selection Mode section. Change the Name field to be
MID PLY and select the Rename button. The ply name is changed. You may have to
stretch out the column to read it.
Expand the Stacking branch until you can see the MID PLY-1 as shown.
Notice the ply has not contour definition. This is because you created the ply in the
Interactive Ply Table where you cannot define the shape of the ply. Anytime you create a
ply in the ply table, you must remember to define its contour when you are finished.
Select Parallel.1, Parallel.2, Parallel.3 and Parallel.4 from Geometrical Set.1 in the
specification tree to define the contour for the ply. This will specify that it is a full ply.
Select the Ply Exploder icon. The Ply Exploder window appears.
Set the options as shown above and select OK. The plies are displayed.